Pennsylvania's grades 'mixed' on tobacco control report card

By Jenny Wagnerjwagner@timesonline.com

Wednesday

Jan 22, 2014 at 12:01 AMJan 22, 2014 at 12:45 AM

While the number of Pennsylvanians lighting up has gone down over the years, the state still is failing in its efforts to prevent people from starting to smoke and helping them quit, a national report card found.

The American Lung Association on Tuesday released its “State of Tobacco Control 2014” report, which grades each of the 50 states and Washington, D.C., in four categories related to their tobacco control policies.

For the second year in a row, Pennsylvania earned an F in spending on tobacco prevention and control, C’s for both smoke-free air and cigarette taxes, and an F for cessation coverage (efforts to quit smoking).

Deb Brown, chief executive officer of the American Lung Association of the Mid Atlantic, said in an announcement that the state’s report card was “decidedly mixed” in the fight against tobacco.

“We made some progress in protecting our citizens from tobacco-caused diseases like lung cancer and (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) through our prevention and cessation initiatives,” Brown said. “But our state’s leaders still need to do more, especially when it comes to helping smokers quit and eliminating the gaping exemptions to the clean indoor air law.”

Fifty years after the federal government first announced the link between smoking and ill health, the 32nd Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health released last week showed that smoking still kills 443,000 people each year.

The surgeon general’s report warned that smoking-attributable deaths are likely to remain high for decades and 5.6 million young people under age 17 will die prematurely from smoking-related illnesses.

Although the state took steps to reduce tobacco use in 2013, it failed to adequately fund prevention programs to protect children and curb tobacco-related disease, ALA officials said in the announcement.

Funding is key, according to the report, because it keeps children from lighting up and helps established smokers extinguish their habits, but it could be in jeopardy because of an arbitration ruling in September that reduced tobacco master settlement agreement payments to the state by $180 million, or 60 percent.

Lori Vish-Stearns, executive director of Community Health Challenge, which provides tobacco prevention services and cessation referrals in western Pennsylvania, said her agency has seen decreases in the numbers of cigarette smokers, but other types of tobacco and nicotine products are still problem areas.

“We haven’t paid as much attention to spit tobacco ... and it’s showing,” she said, noting that efforts have been focused on cigarettes because of the dangers of second-hand smoke.

Other nicotine delivery systems, such as e-cigarettes and Hookahs or water pipes are especially concerning, she said, because more young people are using them.

“I’m not sure ... if it’s an actual switch from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, but I know we’re seeing an increase in the numbers of even middle schoolers who are using e-cigarettes,” Vish-Stearns said.

The state passed in the cigarette excise tax and smokefree air categories, but it could earn an A instead of a C in the latter if loopholes for casinos and some bars in the clean indoor air law were eliminated, according to the ALA.

Cessation efforts in the state weren’t enough to get a passing grade in 2013, but the ALA said it will continue to advocate for coverage of tobacco cessation treatment including medications in private health insurance plans.

A state “quitline” (1-800-QUIT-NOW) is available for smokers looking for cessation counseling and assistance over the phone, and Vish-Stearns said the program recently was expanded to allow health educators to reach out to individuals who tell their health care providers that they want cessation help.

“We’re actually seeing some success with it,” she said. “It’s a little more of a partnership approach.”

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